At least 11 children in Cape Town died of diarrhoea at provincial hospitals last month and 1 000 were admitted for the treatment of gastro-enteritis.
This weekend alone, there were 45 new admissions to Red Cross Children's Hospital from its specialised rehydration unit, designed to address the seasonal diarrhoea epidemic in the city. Ten of the 45 were admitted early this morning.
The province's biggest hospital, Tygerberg, said six children had died after being admitted in February, and Red Cross said five had died since the third week of January.
Tygerberg Hospital spokesperson Laticia Pienaar said the number of admissions for gastro-enteritis for February had risen from 95 last year to 124 this year.
Although there were more than 1 000 cases in hospital in the province for January and February, health authorities warned that the outbreak was not over, as late March and April were considered peak season for diarrhoea.
"March is the hottest month of the year in Cape Town, and because of poor living conditions… things get worse," said Dr Tony Westwood, co-ordinator of child health services at the Department of Health and a specialist at Red Cross hospital.
"Another aspect is that the more infected people you have, the higher the risk."
Areas in Philippi, Guguletu, Nyanga, Delft, Khayelitsha and Ikhwezi township in the Helderberg were described as hotspots for diarrhoea.
Given the sporadic outbreak in the province, health workers were taking precautions and testing the more severe cases of diarrhoea for cholera, but there had been no cholera cases among children.
Tygerberg Hospital, which has about 33 cases, said a significant part of its intensive care unit space was filled with critically ill children.
Pienaar said at least 30% of children in the hospital needed to be admitted for longer than 48 hours because of the severity of their illness. Most of them were younger than two and most were dehydrated.
"There is a range from mild to very severe cases. Most of the mild cases are dealt with at local clinics and don't get to hospital.
"Some severe cases are from clinics and community health centres, but many are transfers from district hospitals because the children are so ill," she added.
Westwood said that of the 1 000 admissions for January and February, at least 470 were at Red Cross and 140 at Tygerberg.
Although he had noticed a steep increase in the number of admissions, which was putting pressure on hospital beds, it was too early to say whether the situation was worse than last year.
"We don't yet know if it's worse than usual," he said, adding that when the numbers have been crunched, it might be possible that figures were down, considering the increase in the province's immigration numbers.
Temba Gubula, a spokesperson for Red Cross, confirmed that up until the end of last week, 150 children had been admitted.
But then another 45 had been admitted in the past three days.
A total of 33 were discharged while 20 were transferred to other provincial hospitals, including Tygerberg and Karl Bremer.
Gubula said there was no significant increase in the number of deaths this year.
- Cape Argus
This weekend alone, there were 45 new admissions to Red Cross Children's Hospital from its specialised rehydration unit, designed to address the seasonal diarrhoea epidemic in the city. Ten of the 45 were admitted early this morning.
The province's biggest hospital, Tygerberg, said six children had died after being admitted in February, and Red Cross said five had died since the third week of January.
Tygerberg Hospital spokesperson Laticia Pienaar said the number of admissions for gastro-enteritis for February had risen from 95 last year to 124 this year.
| There were more than 1 000 cases in hospital in the province for January and February |
"March is the hottest month of the year in Cape Town, and because of poor living conditions… things get worse," said Dr Tony Westwood, co-ordinator of child health services at the Department of Health and a specialist at Red Cross hospital.
"Another aspect is that the more infected people you have, the higher the risk."
Areas in Philippi, Guguletu, Nyanga, Delft, Khayelitsha and Ikhwezi township in the Helderberg were described as hotspots for diarrhoea.
Given the sporadic outbreak in the province, health workers were taking precautions and testing the more severe cases of diarrhoea for cholera, but there had been no cholera cases among children.
| '... because of poor living conditions, things get worse' |
Pienaar said at least 30% of children in the hospital needed to be admitted for longer than 48 hours because of the severity of their illness. Most of them were younger than two and most were dehydrated.
"There is a range from mild to very severe cases. Most of the mild cases are dealt with at local clinics and don't get to hospital.
"Some severe cases are from clinics and community health centres, but many are transfers from district hospitals because the children are so ill," she added.
Westwood said that of the 1 000 admissions for January and February, at least 470 were at Red Cross and 140 at Tygerberg.
Although he had noticed a steep increase in the number of admissions, which was putting pressure on hospital beds, it was too early to say whether the situation was worse than last year.
"We don't yet know if it's worse than usual," he said, adding that when the numbers have been crunched, it might be possible that figures were down, considering the increase in the province's immigration numbers.
Temba Gubula, a spokesperson for Red Cross, confirmed that up until the end of last week, 150 children had been admitted.
But then another 45 had been admitted in the past three days.
A total of 33 were discharged while 20 were transferred to other provincial hospitals, including Tygerberg and Karl Bremer.
Gubula said there was no significant increase in the number of deaths this year.
- Cape Argus
No comments:
Post a Comment